[Zope-dev] dropping Python 2.4 support in the Zope Toolkit?

[Tres Seaver]

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Martijn Faassen wrote:
> Hey,
> 
> In order to get to a conclusion:
> 
> I haven't seen convincing arguments yet *not* to drop the Python 2.4 for 
> new releases of the Zope Toolkit libraries.
> 
> I'd like to phrase the debate in those terms instead of the reverse, 
> because ensuring Python 2.4 compatibility is an additional burden for 
> developers and we need good arguments for *not* dropping this burden.
> 
> There is some discussion that Plone 3.x on Zope 2.10 could maybe use 
> Zope Toolkit libraries somehow and that there would be a problem if we 
> dropped Python 2.4 support. I still don't quite see how this can happen, 
> as it already uses Zope 3.x, right? You can't use multiple versions of 
> both libraries at the same time. I tried to explain how it's problematic 
> to mix libraries that are post-dependency-refactoring with libraries 
> from *before* the dependency refactoring.

I agree strongly that using the ZTK isn't going to be feasible for Plone
unless / until they move it to a post-dependency-factored version of Zope2.

> I think we have two libraries with a special status that should retain 
> Python 2.4 support for the time being: zope.interface and zope.component.

I would argue for a couple more, which make up the "under the bicycle
seat" version of the ZTK likely to see wider use outside of zope:

 - zope.event (a dependency of zope.component)

 - zope.schema

 - zope.i18nmessageid (a dependency of zope.schema)

BFG, which currently supports Python 2.4, uses some other zope.* packages:

 - zope.configuration

 - zope.deferredimport

 - zope.deprecation

 - zope.hookable

 - zope.i18n

 - zope.proxy

 - zope.testing

That isn't an argument to keep those packages in the "must support
Python 2.4" camp, as long as newer versions bump their major version
numbers:  BFG installs from its own index, which would just exclude
those newer versions untill BFG drops 2.4 support.

Tres.
- --
===================================================================
Tres Seaver          +1 540-429-0999          tseaver at palladion.com
Palladion Software   "Excellence by Design"    http://palladion.com
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